Biocompatibility and osseointegration in osteoporotic bone - A preliminaryin vitro and in vivo study

We implanted nails made of titanium (Ti6A14V) and of two types of glass cer amic material (RKKP and AP40) into healthy and osteopenic rats, After two m onths, a histomorphometric analysis was performed and the affinity index ca lculated, In addition, osteoblasts from normal and osteopenic bone were cul tured and the biomaterials were evaluated in vitro. In normal bone the rate of osseointegration was similar for all materials t ested (p < 0.5) while in osteopenic bone AP40 did not osseointegrate (p < 0 .0005). In vitro, no differences were observed for all biomaterials when cultured i n normal bone-derived cells whereas in osteopenic- bone-derived cells there was a significant difference in some of the tested parameters when using A P40. Our findings suggest that osteopenic models may be used in vivo in the prec linical evaluation of orthopaedic biomaterials, We suggest that primary cel l cultures from pathological models could be used as an experimental model in vitro.